WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO STUDY?

STUDY???

Anne Barber and Karen Scarseth Lincoln High School, Wisconsin Rapids

What are they doing?

When you ask them, “Did you study for the test?”

“I’ve never study for math before.” or“You can’t study for math.”

Famous Quotes from Parent Teacher Conferences

They have always had an A in math.

What can they do to improve their grade?

I see them doing math all the time.

My son/daughter says your test questions are NOTHING like the homework.

Famous Quotes from the students

I read my notes.

I looked over my homework/old worksheets.

I did my homework.

These test questions are NOTHING like the homework!

We never covered this in class.

Pre Calculus Quiz ScoresThey wouldn’t be in Pre Calculus if they

weren’t good students… So why not better grades?

What is the point to the assigned homework?

It is a formative grade.

It is checked for completion.I just need to have something filled in so I can get my points.

Not that important to my overall grade.

Homework was not serving it’s intended purpose of practice.

A . K . A .

WRITING THEIR OWN PRACTICE ASSESSMENTS

STENO PAD PLAN

HOW does IT Work?

STENO PAD PLAN 1) Give examples in class. 2) Students copy example twice – once in notebook and once in

Steno Pad. 3) Students DON’T write solutions to examples in STENO PAD during

class lecture. Only in their regular notebook. 4) STENO PAD DAY – Day before quiz, students get out STENO PAD

and complete all problems without looking in their notes or getting any help. (AKA – Practice Quiz)

NO more checking homework.

Students go back and do homework if they have questions they don’t understand in the STENO PAD.

Typical Weekly Lesson Schedule (48min class periods)

Monday – Wednesday Cover 2-3 sections of material from textbook.

Each day giving 4-5 examples.

ThursdaySteno Day – Students work in steno pads on the problems they wrote down from the previous days. Answers are displayed in class for students to check as they work.

Friday Assessment Day

What do they do with the homework from the book???

What this has done…

They do more math problems and work harder in that one class on the Steno pad, than any other.

They feel like they know what the quiz will look like.

They ask questions on topics they thought they knew but now realize they don’t.

Our Favorite: They act like they have never seen these problems before!

Results

Class Average: 93%

4 of next 5 weeks had class averages ABOVE 90%.

Topics included: conic sections, matrix applications, and linear programming

What THEY say…NOWI have more confidence.

This is a lot of work, but it is worth it.

I realize I didn’t know it as well as I thought.

These test questions are JUST like what we covered in class!

I know what to except to see when I get my quiz and I know how to answer the questions.

STENO PAD PLAN